hiring

Maybe you’ve noticed, there always seems to be one child during an Easter egg hunt who, unsure of what to do, sits down in the middle of the church yard with their Easter basket beside them. Setting their basket out, they appear to wait for the eggs to come and hop into their basket, and walk away, certain they will have all the eggs they hoped for.

Although it can make for a cute approach to an Easter egg hunt, it’s an unsuccessful method for the church in searching for the next person to the join its staff. Yet, this is often the style that unprepared search committees tend to take.

A posting is drafted with the job description and minor details about the position, it’s posted on the church website, and then the waiting begins. And it continues, and the team is left wondering, “What’s wrong with the church if no one will apply?”

In addition, tensions tend to rise about the vacant position and the size of the shoes that now need to be filled. Questions can be heard throughout worship on Sunday morning. “When will we find the right person?” “How will the next person do the job like Jill?” “Do we have someone else already to fill the position? I know they just announced it this morning.” The list of hopes, dreams, and expectations grows larger and larger.

For many churches, the search process can be fueled with worry and anxiety and often results in hurried and rushed search. Although there are stories (maybe legends) of how the hurry up offense resulted in a great hire, it’s more likely that the results of a rushed hiring process are jeopardizing what might be best for the ministry, creating unmet expectations, and settling for the first person who provides a good interview.

In order to conduct the best search, there are three crucial components to consider.

The search work always starts in-house.

Assessing what is and what isn’t currently working in the ministry is the first step. What people love about the ministry and what they hope for in the future can be key in making a successful hire. Reviewing the current mission and vision of the church and outlining how this position fits into those goals will set the new hire up for success. What new season is the church entering and how will that impact the job description and responsibilities? These are big questions that take time to answer. The answers though are the foundation of all the work the search team is expected to do.

Form a clear process and timeframe.﻿

Creating clarity about the different stages of the search and setting time frames for each help to keep the work on track. Consider a six-month timeframe when thinking about next steps. How long do you intend to review and assess the ministry? How long will resumes be collected? When will phone interviews begin and when do we intend to move toward in-person interviews? When do we expect to be done? Not only do the answers to these questions help the search team stay on track, but it provides a communication map to be shared with church members, too. Often, having a clear and unified response from the team is enough to turn the tide of anxiety toward patient anticipation.

Be prepared to do your homework.

Avoid the tendency to post the position and sit back and wait for resumes to appear. This is a search and requires some hard work from the team. Create an elevator pitch and social media posts the church members can share. Shape the interview questions to match the type of experience you’re looking for. Take time to discover how the candidates previous work matches up with the newly fine-tuned job description. Follow-up with references to hear more about their previous work and experience. Does that reflect what the ministry needs now and in the future? As a team, agree to wait for the right candidate.

It’s summer, which means it’s time for cookouts, pools, youth camps, and internships. Every summer, youth ministries all over the country host interns in some form or fashion. Maybe they’re paid, but more often they’re volunteer. Maybe they’re seminary students, or maybe they’re graduating seniors from your youth ministry. Regardless of who they are and what stage of life they’re in, the key to having great interns is having a great program.

If you have interns but don’t have a strong program, then one of a few things will happen. For starters, you may not have interns in the future. Word will travel about the quality of your program. The fastest way to make sure you won’t have an internship program in the future is to have a poor one now. If you continue to have interns, you’ll probably attract less than stellar individuals. So if the key to having great interns is to have a great program, how in the world do you put a great program together?

I’ve had interns on and off for years now. I’ve had programs in vastly different sized churches and cultures. Through my experience with interns (both good and bad) I’ve come up with five keys to a solid intern program, and I want to share them with you. Having interns and developing them well is not just good for you and your church, it’s good for the big “C” Church. It’s a place to raise up the next generation of youth workers, youth pastors, and church staff. It’s precisely because of this that we owe it to ourselves, our churches, and our students to do it well. So here are five keys I’ve found to having a great intern program.

5 Keys to a Great Intern Program

#1: Use applications and interviews.

This may seem simple, but it’s an absolute game changer in my opinion. If you want to have a great intern program, start by putting together a great application process. Our application gets the applicant’s information and includes a page of leadership questions. It also requires two written references from adults. After completing the application, potential interns go through a series of two interviews. I try to make these interviews happen with two different people. Our interns currently interview first with our pastor of leadership and development. If they get his recommendation, then they interview with me. It’s a lot, but it’s worth it.

So why do we make it such a process? Well, it’s because I believe it separates those who are serious and those who aren’t. If they’re not willing to go through the process & paperwork, they won’t be ready for the internship. A good application and interview process will help get the right people for your program.

#2: Have a plan.

This step is possibly the most overlooked by most youth pastors. You get a few interns. They turn out to be good and talented people, but you don’t know what to do with them. You are busy and don’t have time to teach them a lot, so they end up doing busy work the entire summer. Does this sound familiar? It does to me. I’ve seen it time and time again with youth pastors, and it used to be my story.

If you don’t have a plan for how to use your interns, they’ll end up frustrated, under used, and devalued. This could be the most important part of the process. So before you start an intern program, come up with a clear written plan for how you will use them. Doing this right will take more of your time, so make sure you have a plan to set aside time to spend with them as well. When it comes to internships, remember this: if you have a good plan, they will have a good experience!

#3: Be intentional about development.

The primary goal of an intern program should not be getting work out of people, but developing them. Developing people won’t happen by accident though, it has to be intentional. Part of your plan for interns should be how you will develop them as people and leaders. There are a variety of ways to go about this, but the key is intentionality. I develop interns in four ways: one on one meetings; small group book studies, leadership classes, and hands on projects.

I meet with each intern for personal development at least once every other week. These meetings generally last 30 minutes and focus more on their development than performance. All our summer interns meet once a week with another leader for an intern small group. During this time they walk through a leadership book together. We also hold hour long leadership classes every few weeks. These are led by different staff members at the church. The final way we develop interns is through the assignment of a ministry project. Each intern is assigned a project based on their skill set, gifting, and personality. These projects are designed to stretch them and help them grow throughout the summer.

Regardless of how you go about developing interns, the important thing is that you do it. If you do this well, they will have a greater impact on your youth ministry. More than that, developing them well will set them up for a better future in ministry. You’ll know you’re doing a good job when your interns leave as better leaders than when they started. The key to developing interns is this: want more FOR them than you want FROM them!

#4: Limit them to a manageable number.

I found this one out the hard way. The easiest way to jack up an intern program is to take too many of them! My suggestion is to decide up front on a manageable number of interns and keep it below that number. The number may vary for each youth pastor, but in my experience it’s usually 5-6 interns. When you bring on more people than this, it gets hard to give them the time and attention they need. It also gets hard to give them enough assignments to keep everyone busy. This isn’t always a hard and fast rule, but 5 is my general recommendation for youth pastors. The key is to keep the number low enough so that you can manage and develop them well. It’s not about getting extra help from them, it’s about helping them grow and get better.

#5: Set clear expectations.

In leadership, clarity is kindness. There are few things I hate worse than having fuzzy expectations. Most of us desire clarity from our leaders, and interns are no different. The best way to help your interns succeed is to be crystal clear about what you expect of them. Be clear about when they should be there, how long they should work, and what they should be doing. Take the guess work out of it and they will perform better and feel valued. A lack of clarity will result in wasted time and frustration for everyone involved. Clarity is kindness, so set clear expectations from the beginning. Your interns will thank you for it, and so will your future self!

Do you have interns? Are you interested in starting an intern program in the future? We would love to hear your comments and questions . Also, let us know if you have something to add that will help take an intern program to the next level at [email protected]

I remember as a kid how much I wrestled with what I would be for Halloween. Whatever costume I chose had to be the perfect fit. It had to fit my personality and no ordinary costume would do.

Minnie Mouse? No.

Superwoman? Eh, maybe.

A giant whoopee cushion? Yes, yes, that’s the one.

Searching for the right hire at our churches really matters too. We’re looking for someone who fits the DNA and culture of our church. No ordinary hire will do.

Here are some common pitfalls churches stumble into when they’re looking for the perfect hire.

The Anxious Hire. They get anxious, so they fill the need quickly instead of dealing with the tension of having a vacancy.

The Super Star Hire. They look for a super star personality instead of someone who would be a great fit for their church.

The S.O.S. Hire. They might be hiring with the expectation that this person is going to save their ministry. That’s way too much pressure to put on someone and they’re sure to crumble under the weight of it.

Here are some good practices to try out when searching for the right hire.

Take your time. It typically takes a number of months to find the right hire. Wait, pray and pray some more as you sift through resume and interviews.

Listen to the heart of your church. How will you know who the right hire is if you don’t know what the desires of your church body are? Take time to create space for people to share their dreams and desires for the next hire. Give them space to share about the things they love about the church. Finding someone who fits the church culture is imperative to their longevity at your church.

Gather a team of trusted people. One of the worst things that can happen is making decisions in isolation. The more trusted people involved in a big decision, the better. Make sure to recruit people with wisdom. Folks who desire unity. Leave the complainers out.

Set Realistic Expectations. Don’t expect your hire to save the day or turn the ship of a sinking ministry on their own. Set realistic expectations and set healthy boundaries for your hire. Give them the space to thrive and keep their priorities in order.

Did I Say Take Your Time? Don’t give into anxiety. Trust in God’s provision and wait for His hand to move and provide the next great hire for your church.

Hiring is hard, yet necessary. Few things are more important to the sustainability of a ministry than hiring the right people. Nevertheless, hiring the right people is difficult while finding the wrong ones is easier than catching the common cold.

According to Craig Groeschel, the potential of an organization rests on the strength of its people. If this is true, it’s vital for the Church to hire well. Unfortunately, hiring a team is not something generally covered in Seminary. I didn’t learn it in my classes anyway.

I’ve recently went through this myself. Just a few months ago, I found myself having to hire a whole new ministry team from scratch. It’s needless to say I had no idea what I was doing. So I reached out to wise men and women of God who had been through the hiring process before. Between their wisdom and my experience through the process, here are a few do’s and don’ts that can function as a beginner’s guide to hiring church staff.

DON’T

1) Rush

Perhaps the worst thing you can do when hiring staff is rush. When we rush we tend to make mistakes, and mistakes with people cost a lot more than hiring no one.

My pastor puts it this way: “I would rather want what I don’t have then have what I don’t want.” It’s better to hire no one at all than to rush and hire the wrong person. So when you are hiring staff, be patient and don’t rush the process. Your future self (and the rest of your team) will thank you.

2) Sell Them

When you’re interviewing staff candidates, resist the urge to sell them on your church. I struggle with this one. I love my church so much that I easily default to selling candidates on the job I’m interviewing for. The problem is this keeps us talking more than the candidate. It makes it easier to miss red flags we could have caught other wise.

Additionally, if you have to sell them on the job before they take it, you will probably have to sell them to keep it later. When you’re interviewing staff candidates, don’t try to sell them on the job.

3) Settle

Hiring staff is a lot like getting married. Everyone has junk, you just have to decide whose you want to deal with. When you see a red flag in the interview process, don’t excuse the behavior. If you settle on the front end, you’ll regret it on the back end.

Pastor and leadership expert Craig Groeschel puts it this way. “There are two times when you can never settle: when you’re selecting a spouse and when you’re hiring.” They key to not settling is to know what you want for the role and to look diligently for the right person to fit it. It’s worth the effort to keep searching until you find it. Keep looking for the right one and don’t settle for anything less.

DO

1) Ask Questions

One of the most important things we can do when hiring is to ask great questions. The right questions can uncover more truth than any personality test ever could. Learning to ask the right questions the right way will go a long way in the hiring process.

In the interview process, it’s important to ask questions more than once. By asking similar questions more than once, you will find out much more than asking one time. Each time you ask a similar but rephrased question, you will find out a little more information than you had the first time. People tend to give more information each time. This will also help reveal any inconsistencies in a candidate’s answers.

In his book The Ideal Team Player, Patrick Lencioni advises interviewers to ask questions through the lens of what others would say about the candidate. For example, instead of asking a candidate about their strengths and weaknesses, you could ask them what their previous boss would say their strengths and weaknesses are. People tend to answer questions more honestly when answering them through the lens of what others would say about them. So when interviewing a staff candidate, ask a lot of questions, ask them more than once, and ask them through the lens of others.

2) Test Them

Something I have found helpful in the hiring process is testing candidates with real life situations. For example, when hiring an executive assistant recently I had candidates work through a typical admin to do list. The list was also filled with more than they could accomplish within the one hour time period we gave them. This showed us how candidates performed under pressure. It also showed us their ability to prioritize tasks. We gave them a list of tasks in no particular order to see if they could decide what tasks were most important. Would they start with the most time sensitive tasks or the easiest ones? These answers told us more than any other interview could.

3) Hire for the Future

When hiring new staff, its important to hire for the future and not the present. Hiring a staff candidate who can do the job now sounds good, but it only guarantees your church will continue to tread water. However, hiring someone who is capable of doing more will ensure your church will continue to grow beyond where it is currently at. Where do you want your church to be five years from now? Ask this question and then hire accordingly. You will thank yourself later.

Hiring is difficult, and there is a lot that goes into making successful hires. While this list is far from exhaustive, these do’s and don’ts are a great start for hiring better staff members. If you have any questions or would like further resources on hiring new staff, please email [email protected]

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